Name: Catmint/Robin PNW WA half hour south of Olym (Zone 8a)
these have been swarming around my rose bush lately. I'm not sure what they are. Anyone have any ideas? I can try to get a better photo if need be...
thanks!
"One of the pleasures of being a gardener comes from the enjoyment you get looking at other people's yards”
― Thalassa Cruso
Name: Catmint/Robin PNW WA half hour south of Olym (Zone 8a)
Sorry for the delay in getting a good photo. Here are 2 photos. If the one on the flower isn't clear enough, I can enlarge it some more and upload again.
"One of the pleasures of being a gardener comes from the enjoyment you get looking at other people's yards”
― Thalassa Cruso
Depends if it is a sawfly that goes after roses or was just an accidental visitor. I can't ID it sufficiently from the image. Have you have any "worms" feeding on the leaves? The other critter looks slightly different to me, a closer picture may help.
There's a factsheet on rose sawflies on the Missouri Botanical Garden site, it's called "rose and pear slugs (sawflies)" and it suggests some controls. You should be able to get to it by Googling on the keywords rose sawflies missouri or something similar. I can't get my iPad to paste a link, unfortunately.
Edit: Cross-posted - what is the yellow flower? I don't think it's the same but not sure. It's not likely that a rose sawfly would go for an unrelated plant either.
I wondered about those from your first pic because of the pointy bit that sticks out at the back but I wasn't certain that it wasn't legs or something. Kind of looks like this one, also on coreopsis:
Name: Catmint/Robin PNW WA half hour south of Olym (Zone 8a)
Thanks, Sue! Yes, that does look like it!!
Do you know whether the tumbling flower beetles are beneficial, harmful, or neutral? Just want to know if I should worry about them...
"One of the pleasures of being a gardener comes from the enjoyment you get looking at other people's yards”
― Thalassa Cruso
Hard to find info but my copy of the Peterson Field Guide to Beetles says for tumbling flower beetles "Larvae occur in dead or dying hardwoods, in pith of weeds, or in bracket fungi; they are believed to eat the plant materials." I did see a few references on the web to some species having larvae that are stalk borers. Nothing about the adults being harmful.